Chinese Mafia

Business Week

Xi Jinping, the man in line to be China’s next president, warned officials on a 2004 anti-graft conference call: “Rein in your spouses, children, relatives, friends and staff, and vow not to use power for personal gain.”

As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg.

Those interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company. The figures don’t account for liabilities and thus don’t reflect the family’s net worth.

People's Republic of China. Ha!

Loving U - Sistar

New song and music video!


Loving U - Sistar

It appears they shot the MV in Hawaii. Is this a new trend? The MV for Alone was shot in Las Vegas, probably during their last concert there.

==========

Cool, the album has 7 tracks and 5 are remixes of previous songs:

1. Loving U (러빙유)
2. Holiday (홀리데이)
3. Push Push (DJ Rubato Remix)
4. 나혼자 (Alone) (Smells Remix)
5. Ma Boy (Smells Remix)
6. 니까짓게 (How Dare You) (Demicat Remix)
7. So Cool (DJ Rubato Remix)

Worst.Fundraiser.Ever

Why The Face?! Seriously, what the hell are they thinking? This has got to be the worst idea ever for fundraising. Government is intrusive enough; we don't need "OBAMA/BIDEN" at every one of our personal events.

I think Obama overestimates how much people like him and underestimate how much this kind of crap irritates people.

Worst.President.Ever

7-Zip Ate My Files

:(

I had some files on a SD card and tried to ZIP a 56MB file using 7-Zip by right-clicking. I think by not specifying an output directory, it tried to create the ZIP file on the SD card. The process sat at 0% for about 90 seconds and I decided to click on cancel. Not only did it not compress the file, it decided to corrupt my SD card so now I can't read any file. It was a 2GB Sandisk and I had quite a few files. Hopefully I have a backup on a CD-R/DVD-R somewhere.

ESL for Scammers

Speaking of email spam and scammers, I got this message from "USPS Services":

Notification,

Our company’s courier couldn’t deliver your parcel.

Reason It’s not right the address of recipient.
LOCATION OF YOUR PARCEL:KnoxvilleFort
DELIVERY STATUS: sort order
SERVICE: Local Pickup
NUMBER OF YOUR ITEM:U619256320 NU
INSURANCE: No

Label is enclosed to the letter.
Print your label and show it at the post office.

An additional information:
If the parcel isn’t received within 30 working days our company will have the right to claim compensation from you for it's keeping in the amount of $16.95 for each day of keeping over limited time.

You can find the information about the procedure and conditions of parcels keeping in the nearest office.

Thank you for attention.
USPS Services.

Huh? These scam email would work better if the English teachers in Nigeria were better qualified. :)

There was a 44k .rar file attached. Of course I didn't download and open the attachment. It probably contains Trojan.happili or some other virus from Vacations To Go.

Trojan.happili and Vacations To Go

About a month ago I posted my experience with Trojan.happili and how it hijacked my mom's computer. One of the apparent beneficiary of the malware was Vacations To Go (VTG); all the links for Royal Caribbean Cruises ended up at their website. I wrote a letter to VTG's CEO and got no response. I also unsubscribed to their email newsletter a month ago but I'm still receiving them, personally signed by the CEO. I'm not even going to try to unsubscribe again since it seems like Vacations To Go has no sense of business ethics; I'll just have to block their entire domain from my email. What a bunch of scumbags.

Again, there's a chance that VTG wasn't involved, which means someone wrote a trojan that redirects links to benefit VTG without their knowledge. Yeah, right. You would think they would at least reply to my email. Now I'm doubly glad that I didn't book my cruse through VTG.

Some common sense business tips:
- don't use viruses to hijack your customer's computer
- don't sign your name to email newsletters then ignore customer replies
- don't continue spamming your customers after they unsubscribed from said spam

Third Culture Worship

You Love Me Still - Third Culture Worship

Irene is the lead singer in the video. I used to play bass for her when she led worship at NewSong NOC.

Friday Traffic

Ugh. It's going to take me 2 hours to get home. :(

Badwill

Goodwill basketball game cancelled. Is there anything such as "goodwill" with the CCP?

Wall Street Journal

Now, a Chinese basketball team has called off games with the Philippines, the Agence France-Presse reports. The Shanghai Sharks—the team partially owned by native son and basketball star Yao Ming—had been slated this month to play two games in Manila, but the team’s vice general manager has asked for an indefinite postponement of the games, an official with the Philippine Sports Commission told the AFP.

The games were organized last year by both governments as a way to promote friendly sport exchanges between the two nations. However since April, China and the Philippines have been embroiled in an ugly maritime standoff in the South China Sea over a collection of rocks, reefs and islands called the Scarborough Shoal. Both countries claim the shoal, known as Huangyan Island in Chinese, as their territory.

Warning signs have been percolating for some time that the fate of the so-called “goodwill” games might be on the rocks. Earlier last month, a Sharks spokesman said it was unclear whether the team would be able to play. “It’s not about our decision right now,” he told Chinese state media.

The Sharks told Philippines sports officials the players’ passports weren’t ready and therefore they couldn’t participate. A Philippines official said the commission was “surprised” by this, given that the players had plenty of time to prepare their papers, says AFP.

Sigh... more lies. They were able to give Chen Guangcheng a passport in a few days, even sending someone to take his photo in the hospital. I guess anything is possible when you want an embarrassing situation swept under the rug.

This whole "dispute" is lame. Looking at a map, it's obvious that China is bullying their way into claiming someone else's territory; Scarborough Shoals is within 200 miles of the Philippines, which should be part of their EEZ.



There are some tiny uninhabited islands off the coast of Fujian. Maybe Philippines should go claim them as its territory. Stupid.

Illegal Air Pollution

No, the pollution itself is not illegal. As often the case in China, disseminating information about pollution is illegal.

Xinhuanet

BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- A foreign embassy's monitoring and issuing of air quality data in China is technically inaccurate and goes against international conventions and Chinese laws, an environment official said Tuesday in Beijing.

Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Wu Xiaoqing said to monitor air quality and release results, which involves the public interest, is the duty of the Chinese government.

"Some foreign embassies and consulates in China are monitoring air quality and publishing the results themselves. It is not in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, as well as environmental protection regulations of China," Wu told a press conference.

...

"According to international conventions, diplomats are obligated to respect and abide by the laws and regulations in their receiving states. In addition, they cannot interfere with the domestic issues of receiving states," said Wu.

I'm going to call bullsh*t on the Vienna Convention nonsense. I read elsewhere that the Chinese government said foreign embassies can collect air pollution data for their staff but not publish on the Internet. Really? The Vienna Convention regulates Twitter tweets?! Also, let's see this "environmental protection regulation"... I'll bet none of the actual polluters are in trouble, especially those with government connections. Since Twitter is blocked in China (there's probably no laws being followed there either), the US embassy is technically not publishing PM2.5 data in China anyway.

June 4th, 1989

In commemoration, here is the list of search terms blocked by Sina Weibo as reported in China Digital Times:

As of June 4, the following search terms are blocked on Weibo (not including the “search for user” function):

Individual Chinese characters:
fire (火): as in candle flame (烛火), torch (火炬), oil lamp (圣火)
candle (烛): as in [wax] candle (蜡烛), candlelight (烛光); Sina Weibo removed the candle emoticon over the weekend.
blood (血): as in bloody suppression (血腥镇压), bloody incident (流血事件)
people (民): as in People’s Liberation Army (人民解放军), democracy (民主)
movement (运): as in democracy movement (民运), student movement (学运)
move (动): as in student movement (如学生运动), memorial event (悼念活动), mobilize troops (出动军队)
government (政): as in Fang Zheng(方政), regimental commissar (团政委), one-party dictatorship (一党专政)
crush (碾): as in Fang Zheng‘s legs were crushed (方政被碾断双腿), crush and destroy (碾毁)
tǎn (坦): as in tank (坦克)
ceremony (祭): as in ceremony for Tiananmen victims (祭奠六四遇难者)

Numerals and Words Related to the Date of the Tiananmen Massacre:
8, 8 (八), eight (捌), eight: All forms of “eight” and other forms of the numbers below.
9, 9 (九), nine (玖), nine
6, 6 (六), six (陆), six
4, 4 (四), four (肆), four
23, 23 (廿三), 23 (二十三): Today is the 23rd anniversary of the massacre.
35, 35 (三十五): Netizens call today May 35th to get around the censors.

Other Related Terms:
anniversary (周年)
today (今天): searching for today’s date.
yesterday (昨天)
tomorrow (明天)
that year (那年): netizen code for 1989.
declaration (宣言): as in “Hunger Strike Declaration” (绝食宣言)
commemorate (纪念): commemorate 6.4 [as Tiananmen is frequently referred to] (纪念六四), Heroes Monument (英雄纪念碑), etc.
redress (平反): recall 6.4
Victoria Park (维园): An annual candlelight vigil is held in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember the Tiananmen massacre.
park (公园)
recall (追思)
mourn (悼念): as in mourn 6.4
silent tribute (默哀)
evening event (晚会)
black clothes (黑衣): Netizens called for people to walk in the streets wearing black clothes to remember Tiananmen.
go into the street (上街)
never forget (勿忘): as in never forget 6.4 (勿忘六四), never forget the national calamity (勿忘国难)
never forget (毋忘): same as above
(Tian)anmen Mothers (（天）安门母亲)
Little Secretary (小秘书): as in the Sina Weibo “Little Secretary”
Twitter (推特): Chinese-language tweets tend to be democracy activists. During sensitive times, many share information about gatherings.
ism (主义): as in “overthrow socialism” (推翻社会主义)
autonomous (自治): as in “Peking University Student Government”（北大自治会）

Names of People Active in Tiananmen:
Bei Dao (北岛): On the eve of the Tiananmen Massacre, poet Bei Dao submitted a plea for political reform to the central government.
Yuan Mu (袁木): Former State Council Information Office spokesman and apologist for the regime. In April 1989 he spoke with 45 students in 16 high schools.
Deng Liqun (邓力群): leftist influence within the Party
Chen Xitong (陈希同): then-mayor of Beijing. He recently said Tiananmen was an avoidable tragedy.
Yan Jiaqi (严家其): sociology student who went into exile in the U.S
Han Dongfang (韩东方): Capital Autonomous Workers Federation leader during Tiananmen
Feng Congde (封从德): retested
Zhai Weimin (翟伟民): major player in the Capital Autonomous Federation of University Students
Chen Ziming (陈子明): currently a contributing writer to Deutsche Welle’s “China Observer” column